Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
Gentle, subtle, poignant, Barnett is almost crooning as she talks disappointment and expectation, and she has a photographer’s eye for detail when it comes to the otherwise mundane.
100
A convincing argument that rock & roll doesn't need reinvention in order to revive itself, Courtney Barnett's full-length debut Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. falls into a long, storied rock tradition but never feels beholden to it.
100
On her full-length proper, Barnett arrives as a longstanding voice, someone who’s going to long outlive the characters she writes about.
91
Building on the best tendencies of her earlier songs, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit finds Barnett deftly connecting the foreground to the background, the surface to the undercurrent.
91
Sometimes I Sit and Think lends further support to the argument that women are the last, best hope of a once vital genre.
90
On Sometimes I Sit, Barnett is able to find a balance between giving open rein to free associating any and all mundanely personal details that come to mind and striking a bright pop tone that compacts and condenses the more meandering trips collected on 2013’s The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas.
90
The tunes are tight and sticky; the guitars hit with real sizzle and bite, accented by flourishes like the garage-rock organ in "Debbie Downer" or the cowbell swing of "Aqua Profunda!"
90
By channeling her anxiety into wonderful, shaggy, relatable and supremely catchy songs, she’s made Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit one of the most compulsively listenable albums to come out so far this year.
90
It doesn't excite with sonic innovation and lyrical reinvention, it excites by just sounding really, really, really good, and coming from a voice that, in more ways than one, we've never quite heard before. And that in itself should make it one of the most thrilling albums you hear this year.
90
For an album that deals in low stakes, Sometimes I Sit and Think finds Barnett hitting some incredible highs.
90
Sometimes is the work of probably the best lyricist writing today, and roundly deserves to be an album for the ages.
86
Even at their most clever, her songs glide from line to line and thought to thought, a stray observation about cracks in the walls leading to something about the wrinkles in Barnett's own palm, propelled by rock'n'roll that seems to find itself plenty serviceable but nothing to stop and fuss over.
86
If any teachers out there are looking for a contemporary indie rock album that’s worth studying in an English literature classroom, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is it.
85
Louder, fuller and more assured, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit builds on the promise of her first two EPs and then some.
85
At least when it comes to her music, she's anything but disappointing.
80
She might not want a pedestal, but there aren’t many songwriters who’d make better use of it.
80
Melbourne's slacker queen toughens up on expansive full-length debut.
80
This debut album proper lacks The Double EP’s shock value – we already know she’s good – but Sometimes… moves Barnett’s own story along with the easy percolation of one of her own songs, better produced and more varied than its predecessor.
80
A stellar, necessary batch of smart rock songs.
80
There are manifold reasons why Barnett’s music is so compelling, then, but it all boils down to the way that she mines the little details for something powerful and resonant, creating songs that are at once universal and deeply personal.
80
She’s having a lot of fun doing what she’s doing, and that attitude is half of the reason why this is a debut album with such massive appeal.
80
Still, all this detailed wordsmithery would mean little if Barnett didn’t have the tunes to back it up, and this debut album is full to the brim with irresistible shuffles and subtle left turns.
80
Barnett’s songs hold such sway because she’s voicing her entire range of emotions: alternately scared shitless, achingly sad, and (rightly) proud of herself. Being so in touch with her scattershot feelings, her pen should never run dry.
80
Half of the time Barnett, sounds like she isn't even trying, shrugging out moments of brilliance with ease and nonchalance. Whether she sits and thinks or sits and does nothing, it would appear the results are still golden.
80
Although Sometimes I Sit and Think is musically straightforward, Barnett doesn’t need anything more to tell great stories.
80
Charming and ironic, bored and anxious, disillusioned but hopeful: Barnett captures those millennial complications and contradictions like nobody else.
80
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is fun, intelligent and sets up Barnett as a voice who can tread between both high and low culture and treat them the same.
75
Barnett clearly doesn’t always take herself or her surroundings seriously, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have serious things to say about both.
70
Any song on this album could function as a funny little short story well enough, but Barnett’s band, her guitar playing, her impeccable sense for melody and consistency give her stories life beyond their quirks, beyond her strength as a chronicler of the exhausting contemporary situation, expanding them into emotional worlds unto themselves.
70
It all means that Sometimes I Sit… is a likeable, enjoyable album rather than a great one. Barnett has written half a masterpiece: let’s hope that, next time round, she can complete the job.
70
With Sometimes I Sit, Barnett sidesteps any quaint expectations and delivers a true debut album that can surprise listeners with its depth and universality.
70
What Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit reflects is that Courtney Barnett is a burgeoning talent whose future likely holds great improvement from this already-impressive starting point.
70
Beneath Barnett’s nasal Australian tones, raw guitar riffs and more delicate, reflective sounds combine to great effect. With a self-deprecating, underwhelming tone to her lyrics, the thrashing guitars really do add a great deal to this record, not just making it more enjoyable but also profiling the talent of a focused musician.
70
Somehow though, the record doesn’t quite live up to her previous EPs, generally lacking the bile, bite and wit that cemented her as a swift cult heroine in her native Australia and elsewhere and losing a lot in its excess of whimsy. Still, for an album based around swimming and vegetables, it’s actually pretty good.
65
On the one hand, its contents are spiky, prissy, and riff-smothered; the sound of an apathetic 20-something detached from modern excess. On the other, it's a frustrating trip of unambitious pastiche.
50
Melbourne singer-songwriter Cortney Barnett's debut LP works on simple garage rock grooves and a relatable charm.
A simple and cool illustration cover and a decent indie rock album.
The first two songs are very impressive and are still considered classic to me.
The rest also gives enough inspiration, but it does not follow the impact of the first two songs. (Overall, I highly value them in terms of completeness, but I have a little thirst for more energetic songs.)
Anyway, I don't deny that it's her best work.
Highlights : Elevator Operator, Pedestrian At Best, Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the ... read more
I was nervous to listen to this because both critics and fans claimed it to be one of the best indie rock projects of the last decade, and what if I don't like it? But I enjoyed it very much, maybe with time it will rise to a 90.
Courtney Barnett is probably the most important singer-songwriter in recent memory. She hardly tries to make her point known, but her relevant and satirical lyrics make it hard not to notice her brilliance.
+ pedestrian at best, small poppies, aqua profunda!, dead fox, nobody really cares if you don't go to the party, kim's caravan.
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Track List
| 1 | Elevator Operator 3:14 | 95 |
| 2 | Pedestrian At Best 3:50 | 95 |
| 3 | An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless In New York) 3:10 | 91 |
| 4 | Small Poppies 6:59 | 90 |
| 5 | Depreston 4:52 | 89 |
| 6 | Aqua Profunda! 1:59 | 85 |
| 7 | Dead Fox 3:33 | 85 |
| 8 | Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party 2:46 | 88 |
| 9 | Debbie Downer 3:17 | 84 |
| 10 | Kim's Caravan 6:47 | 89 |
| 11 | Boxing Day Blues 3:02 | 83 |
Total Length: 43 minutes
Year End Lists
| #2 | / | FasterLouder |
| #2 | / | Newsweek |
| #2 | / | PopMatters |
| #2 | / | Reverb |
| #2 | / | Slant Magazine |
| #2 | / | SPIN |
| #3 | / | No Ripcord |
| #3 | / | Paste |
| #3 | / | Rough Trade |
| #3 | / | Time Out London |
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Added on: January 29, 2015